RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2010)

Marcia,

That was a funny story about your husband using the word "dang!" It's so true though, we all have such different discourses in our lives, and we have to learn how to act in each one. Some discourses mesh better together for some students than others. Students (and all people) have to learn that what is appropriate at one place, may not be appropriate at another place. I'm glad Hicks is doing this research on working-class children as well. White, working-class children probably make up around 90% of the total population at my school. It's important we understand all cultures, but we need to have a grasp on the main culture around us as well. I try not to treat my female students differently as my male students (much like you). However, I had several male students this year whose dads taught them to be somewhat prejudice towards females. I would hear it in some of the comments they made. We need to work as teachers to help students understand everyone needs to be created as equal as possible.
~Jamie Brackett

I have always been very aware of the way I speak in front of my parents too. Even as an adult, I never cuss in front of them and I think it goes back to the way I was raised. After reading some of the things we have about discourse I can relate it to the fact that I have a discourse for how I act and what I say in front of my parents and then one for how I act and what I say in front of my friends. It is interesting to think about how we are able to internalize so many different discourses and to act on them when it is appropriate.
-Elizabeth Norwood

Marcia,
I too really like the word discourse. I was introduced to this word in one of my graduate classes. I had to describe how literacy plays a role in two of my discourses. I enjoyed writing this paper because it made me realize how much “code switching” I do on a daily basis without really even thinking about it. Then, I begin to think about how well my 1st grade students do this. They act a certain way during a class lesson and a different way on the playground. Their talk and interactions with other are very different. I really thought you hit the nail on the head when you gave the example of how students may act one way at school and a different way around their parents. It amazes me how “code switching” is done so naturally, even for small children. It is truly like Hicks said; it is a part of who we are. When I read these two chapters I kept thinking about how important it is to build a good relationship with my students and their parents. I really think one way to do this is to try to make a home visit or attend a sporting event or something outside of the school setting. I think this would help me to get a better glimpse of the different discourses that make up my classroom. Have you ever done this before? If so how did it go and did it help you understand your students better?

Marcia,

I have a story similar to your husband's. I grew up in a Southern Baptist household and you just didn't hear cursing in that environment. During my junior and senior years in college, I was the resident caretaker of the Presbyterian House on campus, used by Presbyterian students as a gathering place. As I learned over those couple of years, Presbyterians (at least the ones I met there)did not have any problems with cursing, as far as I could tell. I must say that a few of those words became part of my "discourse" in that part of my world. When I went home one weekend, I used a curse word instead of the one I would have normally used ("shoot!") to express my displeasure about seeing someone from my high school days. Thankfully, my mom didn't hear me, or at least she pretended not to. My niece, who is just four years younger than I am, did hear me. She started laughing and said, "Listen to you!" Needless to say, I was embarrassed that the two worlds of language had briefly collided.

To piggyback on Emily's comment to you, I am required to do home visits as part of my week of orientation activities with my students. It is indeed very interesting to see students' interactions with their parents in their home territory. In some instances, what you see about a student's language and behavior meshes very well with what you later experience at school, but in some instances, it doesn't. I had this one mom tell me this year that her son could be very stubborn at home and often got punished for it. She looked at me and said, "I know you can't do to him what I do to him when he acts that way, but just let me know if he gets out of hand and I'll take care of it." I was expecting a nightmare of a child on that first day, but he was one of the most well-behaved and I used him as an example of how to act for the other students. Overall, I do agree that home visits are helpful in assisting the teacher in getting a view of what the child's home environment is like. It also assists in helping the child to see you as the teacher (for the first time) in an environment in which he/she feels comfortable. This lessens the anxiety for most children when they come into the classroom for the first time. I have kids at the end of the year who will still say, "Do you remember when you came to my house?"

Clyde Rice

Marcia, Thanks for your insights. I agree that we need to be careful in class how we come across to our students as well. I think sometimes we forget that we ourselves come from our own special background which may or may not be so different than our students. We at times might expect our students to act or feel a certain way because that's how we were raised to think or feel. We all have to adjust and open up our tight little worlds to those of others if we are to help them succeed in school and life in general.We have to come up with ways to get to know not only our students but their families as well. That may take a lot of extra on our part but I'm sure will be well worth the time. I've been brain storming ideas to try next year, whether home visits, parent meetings, surveys, maybe a little of all to try to get more into my students lives.

Marcia,
That is interesting about your husband. My husband is the opposite. He is from the country and I grew up in a small city. He had chores like cleaning stalls, bailing hay, and mending fences. Mine were more like homework and cleaning my room for allowence. Needless to say there are different discourses at both homes. There is another at our home too. His family sees me sometimes as a goody too shoes, and have told me as much. I try to change my discourse to suit them, but sometimes I am just too uncomfortable with that style. I now realize after reading these chapters that this is how some students feel at school.

If we all had the time and the money to go into each of our children’s homes and see the life they live we would be more able to truly understand their strengths and weaknesses, but do we really want to know what our children face on a daily basis? As I was sitting here reading over comments left by others and reading over your post, I thought to myself how different each member of my family is and how we act when certain members are around us. Would we as teachers get the full effect of our student’s lives if we were to visit their homes, or would our student’s parents paint us a pretty picture? I know I do it, and I would be very surprised if others said they did not. I like the part about your husband. As I was saying my family is so different when it comes to each other. I have an aunt and uncle who put on the “I’m always there for my family” act when others are around, but do not call, visit, or come by to check on my mother any other time in life. People put on fronts to look better for others, and I’m sure these parents would put on a show for us if we were to come to their homes, just as they “talk” well at school when we conference with them about their child. What can we do as teachers about this situation? How can we get the full picture of what children are going through if we can't walk in their shoes?
Meredith

It is required for our Pre-K teachers to make home visits before the beginning of school each year. I have never visited the homes of my students. I have mixed feelings about doing that as students get a little older. I almost feel like I would be invading their space, or discourse, I suppose. I can see some benefits of it, but I have just never felt the need to make those visits. Maybe it is something I should consider doing.

Marcia,
I agreed with what you were saying about the research that was done on working class students being important because it is, but I also teach students of many other races and ethnicities and to me the things that I have learned about them have been just as eye opening as this book. I do agree that students have a great deal of discourse and that we need to be observant of that when we deal with them but I also beleive that at an early age they should be taught to handle that discourse. We all are going to have moments when the discourse of one life bleeds into another, just as it did for your husband, but we all need to learn what is appropriate for each setting and try to achieve that. As for homevisits I teach Kindergarten and each year we are required to visit the homes of our students. You would be amazed at how proud those students are of showing a little piece of themselves to you. In our classrooms we have things set up the way we want them and in some ways they are our sacred space. For the students it is as if they are bringing us to their classroom. Especially for the younger students they haven't learned yet that another student in their class may live in a million dollar home and they live in a shack, all they know is that this is their safe place and their pride and joy and to them that is all that matters.

I see the same thing with my students where they will be great in the classroom but out of control with their parents. I have even had parents ask me what I do to get their child to behave. I have even hated to go on field trips because I knew a parent would go and their child would act horribly. I agree that parents and teachers expect different things from the same child. Children try things on you that work with their parents and are surprised when they do not get the same results from you. If we could just get everyone on the same page it would make these encounters so much easier.